


Her

by dire_quail



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Feels, Comfort/Angst, F/F, FebuWhump2021, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon, Reconciliation, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29726937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dire_quail/pseuds/dire_quail
Summary: “Hope?”Mara speaks quietly into the still air. She sits, forearms on thighs, on the edge of a bunk, simple and spare. Not that there hadn’t been others available.Or:The first time Mara speaks Light Hope's name after she's freed from the portal.
Relationships: Light Hope/Mara (She-Ra)
Kudos: 12





	Her

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 12 of Febuwhump. Prompt: _“Who are you?”_
> 
> * * *
> 
> I love these two and also being sad.

“Hope?” 

Mara speaks quietly into the still air. She sits, forearms on thighs, on the edge of a bunk, simple and spare. Not that there hadn’t been others available. 

The air is quiet for a moment. Then, a river of blue shimmers in midair, pouring down from out of nowhere. It pools and takes form, tall and hooded. 

“Yes, Mara?” Light Hope’s hands are clasped in front of her, the image of herself as she always appeared. And yet—not. 

Is it the color? The way she holds her holographic body? As if she were more real. 

Or Mara less. 

Mara is silent for a long time. Light Hope waits. Does not ask if she should be dismissed. Does not repeat her question. The silence stretches on. 

“You’re…” Mara swallows. “You’re not… her.” Mara manages. Tilts her head, expression effortful. “Are you?” She squints slightly up at the figure that towers over her, impassive. Doesn’t lift her head all the way to meet her gaze. 

Mara has full range of motion. But she moves slower, now. The magical scarring and pain of being trapped in an extradimensional space— _outside of time and space_ , the Princess of Dryll had said, _eternity and less than a second all at once_ —have changed her, in so many ways. 

Light Hope is silent for a long moment. “Who do you think I am?” She says finally. 

_I am a program,_ she can almost hear. _Programs cannot be fragile._

Maybe the world is made of glass. Or time; little bits and pieces of time broken off throughout her body, beneath her skin. 

Mara’s face creases, crumbles slightly. Something in her expression trembles. Her head lifts fractionally. “I don’t know.” She says, barely more than a whisper. The words lodge in her throat. “You were my friend.” 

Light Hope nods. 

“Are you…?” Not fear, not sorrow. So far beyond either. 

“All of it.” How can an artificial voice strain with emotion? “All of it is inside me.” An edge in her voice, a burr in a flawless shining surface. “I cannot erase any of it.” 

“Hope.” 

Hope gathers herself. “You called me.” 

Maybe she tries to stand. Maybe she tries to move towards her, to touch her. But she doesn’t make it that far. Mara slides to the floor, hands and knees, head bowed. Her back shudders. Twisted lines of scar tissue carve up the back side of one arm, slicing into the curve of triceps. 

Hope folds, lowering herself to her knees in front of Mara. One glowing hand hovers inches above Mara’s trembling shoulder. Mara sags, leaning further forward. 

Slowly, that blue-white glow spreads and brightens on her cheeks, fills the new hollows there, warms the brittle edges, pools in the dip of her throat, in the shadows behind her jaw. 

Hope curls over Mara’s form. 

“It’s you.” 

“Yes. It’s me.” 

Slowly, Mara relaxes forward, until her hair brushes the fire-bright pixel surface of Hope’s form, shimmering.

**Author's Note:**

> Brought to you by my headcanon that Mara is still in the closed portal to Despondos, goddammit. And this would be part of their reconciliation after Adora and the BFS rescue her and Angella, obvs.


End file.
